Left Nothing wrote:

Agreed that the *build quality* will depend on the experience of the
builder but there is more probability of compatibility & reliability
issues with these smaller white box builders.

Not seen much evidence of that - oddly it is often systems from the
middle tier vendors that seem to cause our cutomers most grief.

Note also that some of the big OEMs can have quite frightening return
rates on some kit - Dell and laptops for example.


Agreed! - Like everything in life, there will always be mistakes made
or things overlooked. The better OEMs will learn from them and make
sure they don't make the same mistakes again.

Oddly some don't seem to bother with some product range... perhaps they
have worked out the economics and decided that it is actually cheaper to
ship out replacements to 30% of their customers for a certain product in
their range.

made as new technology is introduced. Firmware on things such as
optical drives, HDDs & modems are modified to increase reliability or
speed depending on the application of the units.

Hmm - next time you talk to a big OEM tell them you want a DVD drive
without RPC2 region restrictions.... ;-)

(Something small dealers will be able to deliver without too much
difficulty)

Agreed, cases are one of the things that you will very rarely be able
to specify from major OEMs. This is due to the corp identity mainly
although alot of R&D work is carried out on the case design prior to
production.

Often that R&D is focussed on reduced cost of ownership though - not
expandabilty.

Agreed, the difference is that a CC has the backup of the
manufacturers, developers, R&D labs etc whereas the smaller dealer has
access to a much lower level 'dealer line' at the manufacturers or the
same access as the public to their web sites.

Most corporate buyers using the channel, have acces to slightly better
info than Joe Public. More importantly though they often have more
incentive you use it to resolve your problem. Many OEMs just dont have
the customer commitment for non business users (or at lest finding the
one in five members of staff who do is the trickey bit)

As nearly all CCs actually cost the OEM/retailer to run (premium rate
lines nowhere near cover the cost of running a large CC!), it is in
their interest to *resolve your problem* in the shortest, most
efficent way possible.

Yup doing support is expensive - shame that the biggest of them are so
hopeless at achieving that goal then ;-)

The problems usually arrise when the staff don't have the same
commitment to their customers as the management does!

Very true...

(Must admit if I were working in a call centre with Joe Public on the
phone all day with daft problems mostly of their own creation, I most
likely would loose the ability to be civil within the space of a
morning! - not a job I envy at all!)

I have not seen any major OEMs ship products with riser cards in for
years, the cost of R&D, production and warranty is too much to warrant
them!

You can probably still get Optiplex systems from Dell that still use
them. Also any rack mount stuff under 3U will have them (not that many
home users will buy rack mount!)

A few years down the road you decide that the base computer is fine but
it is time for a motherboard, CPU and RAM upgrade. Then you find the big
OEM used a non standard motherboard layout, and the PSU connector is not
the same.


Again, see above!

Saw a new HP (low end system) the other day with a bespoke PSU (standard
connector for once - but an odd case size). Seen plenty of newish Dells
with non standard motherboard mounting locations etc. So they are still
about.

As businesses are very slow to upgrade their hardware, they also need
to cater for the home market! - A good percentage of most major OEMs
volume will be to the home user.

Alot are now realising that - it is taking them time to adjust to the
differing needs. They also tend to have different CCs for home and
business users - the home ones are oftne not a patch on the business ones.

For a low cost PC, built to an exact specification, your local PC
builder is proberbly the best option if you have little experience.

For a low cost system I would say that any supplier is probably OK - the
big OEMs will be fine as well.

IMHO If you want a special system and Don't have the skills to build it
yourself then go to a specialist.

Personally I would source the components online and D-I-Y it myself
:-) (had to get a reference to D-I-Y in somewhere! :-)

Well obviously - same here - but then again I design microsystems and
software etc for a living so the prospect of buying an "off the shelf"
system is almost an affront to my dignity ;-)


--
Cheers,

John.

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